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Top paediatrician cleared of misconduct

SHOULD expert medical witnesses be allowed to say what they like in court without fear of censure, even when they unintentionally mislead the jury? This was the question last week after a ruling by the high court in London reinstated a prominent paediatrician who had been struck off the medical register.

Last July the General Medical Council which regulates British doctors found Roy Meadow guilty of “serious professional misconduct”. The GMC ruled that Meadow had inadvertently misled a jury that convicted Sally Clark in 1999 of murdering two of her sons, who she said had died of “cot death”. Clark …